TfL seems to have rejected this in a letterto John Biggs, Assembly Member

"[The] suggestion that TfL has deliberately created dangerous cycling conditions at Bow…is not acceptable: prior to the collisions there was no indication within the collision history of the roundabout to suggest cyclists or pedestrians were more at risk using it." So says TfL.

I don't know what this makes you feel, but it makes my blood boil. Who gives a sod about TfL's 'collision history' models? The point is these are bloody horrible places for anyone unless they're in a car. People feel scared crossing the road or cycling here. Transport for London doesn't think that matters.

TfL under the Mayor's current strategy no longer seems to think that is the case: "The suggestion for a Double T [junction] at Blackfriars is not workable in TfL's professional opinion". Ah yes, what professional opinion is that? The same paragraph reveals it all. It is only sensible in TfL's 'professional opinion' to make Blackfriars a safe and usable place for pedestrians and people on bikes 'where we test the impacts of a scheme on traffic flow'.

There you have it. TfL's own people recommend a double T junction to make the area safe and easy for people to use on bike and to cross the road. TfL agrees to go ahead with that design several years ago. TfL then scotches all such talk because it now feels that traffic flow of motor vehicles is more important. It backs that change of heart up by some film flam about its 'professional opinion'. I don't know about you but when people write letters that assert their 'professional opinion', I tend to feel they're using that wording to hide the truth.

I think the Mayor and his senior staff at TfL should be hanging their heads in shame. And yet I still don't think they take any of this seriously.

First, he told people they should just 'have their wits about them' when they cycle across junctions like Elephant & Castle. This is precisely why most people don't cycle. They understand that their wits aren't enough to keep them feeling safe against four or five lanes of HGVs and buses all bombing it at 40mph.

Second, he had the temerity to say it grieved him how people blamed Transport for London for what's happening on London's roads (i.e. he seemed to blame cyclists for having the temerity to criticise TfL and his own policies)

Just listen to this video and compare and contrast how Chicago is talking about bike lanes with the language coming out of the Mayor and TfL: "We wanted to pay a lot of attention to where motorists and cyclists interact at intersections". Hear that, Boris?

And that's exactly the point that the Mayor misses again and again. The Mayor has singularly failed to admit that London needs 'space for cyclists that is clearly laid out and is protected from other traffic'.

There are no excuses.

But the Mayor is refusing to change the debate. He's refusing, so far, to tell his transport people to make London a place where people can cycle and walk safely.

The truth is that Boris Johnson is still failing to identify what the Mayors of every other cycling city have identified. Chicago, New York, Utrecht, Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt - you name the city. All of them understand the need for 'space for cyclists that is clearly laid out and is protected from other traffic'. Except for our Mayor who is going it alone by implying that cyclists who are killed or injured don't have their wits about them and by blaming HGV drivers for their lack of road education.